Latest Antarctica Stories

The Ross Sea is a major, biologically productive ecosystem in the Antarctic, which "clearly will be extensively modified by future climate change" in the coming decades as longer periods of ice-free open water are created by rising temperatures and changing wind patterns.

Previous instances of rapid thinning of Pine Island Glacier suggests that current ice loss in the Antarctic could continue for several more decades, a team of geologists from the US, UK and Germany report in this week’s edition of the journal Science.

A team of scientists and engineers with the Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program used a camera-equipped robot to explore beneath the Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica, making an astonishing discovery.

Three high-school students and a teacher from Wisconsin will participate in a joint pilot program of the US and Chilean Antarctic programs that will send them to a Chilean research station this February for hands-on experience with Antarctic environments and ecosystems research.

A team of scientists from Newcastle University, the University of Bristol’s Glaciology Centre, The British Antarctic Survey and the universities of Edinburgh, Exeter and York, have discovered a giant trench below the ice in Antarctica.

The Emperor penguins of Antarctica, which have lost much of their breeding habitat due to a shrinking ice pack, have shown their resiliency to environmental impacts by moving to new breeding locations where ice is thicker.

Mount Erebus is an active volcano that can be found on Ross Island in Antarctica. It is the second largest volcano in Antarctica, reaching a height of 12,448 feet. Sir James Clark Ross discovered it in 1841 in mid-eruption and named it and another volcano Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, after two of his ships. The first people to climb the volcano and reach its summit were part of Sir Ernest Shackleton's party, including Professor Edgeworth David, Jameson Adams, and Dr. Eric Marshall.
Mount...

Antarctica is the Earths southernmost continent; it contains the geographic South Pole. It’s situated in the Antarctic area of the Southern Hemisphere, almost completely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is bordered by the Southern Ocean. It’s the fifth-largest continent at 5.4 million sq miles.
On average, it is the driest, coldest, and windiest continent as well as having the highest average elevation of all the continents. Considered a desert, the annual precipitation is only 8...

The Ross seal (Ommatophoca rossii) is a true seal in the Phocidae family, and can only be found on pack ice in Antarctica. This species was formally described by James Clark Ross in 1841, during his British Antarctic Expedition. It is very uncommon to see in its range and rarely leaves the pack ice, with stray individuals occurring off southeast Australia or sub-Antarctic islands.
The Ross seal can reach an average length between 5.5 and 6.9 feet, although some females can reach up to 8.2...

The Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) is a large true seal in the Lobodontini tribe. It is native to Antarctica, with its range consisting of a large “ring” that surrounds Antarctica. This seal will spend most of its time in the water instead of on land. The Weddell seal appears on the IUCN Red List with a conservation status of “Least Concern”. It is estimated this seal numbers over 800,000 individuals in the wild.
First discovered in 1820s by a British sealing captain...

The Antarctic Silverfish, (Pleuragramma antarcticum), is a member of the Notothenioidei family of fish. It is widely distributed around the Antarctic, but has largely disappeared from the western side of the northern Antarctic Peninsula based on 2010 research funded by the National Science Foundation. It is also found throughout the Southern Ocean.
It grows to an average size of 6 inches, but has been known to reach lengths of up to 10 inches. It is usually pink with a silver tint, and...